Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! We had a nice relaxing day today, although the only time I sat when I was at the computer talking to you (and my mom, and sister!). When I was up, I was picking up tiny wrapping paper pieces, picking up cups, forks, washing dishes, picking up towels, putting away presents, and calling for the kids to put away presents. The kids were constantly on me to help them with this or that gift, and one was always waiting in line while I was helping another. I have put toghter more puzzles today than in the last 3 years, I believe. Luckily, they did not get a lot of gifts this year, so there wasn't a lot of messing around and trash and putting together. Whew. You were very much needed today! We all missed you, and can't wait for you to be here celebrating with us, in person, next Christmas. Adam even asked if you were going to be here
the next Christmas." I have to send Luke's hockey set back. The posts that go together to make the netting are messed up. Some of the ends are smashed down into an oval, instead of being a circle and they wont fit together correctly. I had it mostly together, but I could not force the ends together. Some of the ones I was able to force together cracked under the pressure. I think it is just defective. I'd rather send it back - otherwise it cannot really be used correctly.

We had tilapia and spaghetti squash for dinner. It was delicious and the baby enjoyed too, because s/he is wiggling around so much right now. It's funny how traditional dinners are just not all that important to me since you're not here. I feel bad in one way, since I'm not teaching tradition to the children, but at the same time, they barely eat any of it anyway, so it just seems easier to make what we'll all eat.

I took pictures with my beautiful new camera today. I have some snow pictures. I meant to take a picture of the huge snow drift in the front yard, but I forgot...and now it is dark. I'll get it tomorrow.

We miss your faraway self, and we love it too. Merry Christmas.

Sunday in Kansas

It seems like we have been so busy these past few weeks. I don't really know if we actually have been, but by the end of the day comes, I am exhausted and just want to fall into our warm bed, and not sit in the hard office chair and stare at the computer.

This weekend I got a million (300-something) pictures printed. So I am hoping to be able to put the bug zoo pics on here for you so you can see your kids touching yucky bugs.

We had a really fun day yesterday. We went to church even though I wasn't feelin' it. Sometimes you're just not feeling it though, and you just gotta push through, right? So we went, and it was nice, because the new church was all complete, and it's is very nice. They had coffee, and donuts, and OJ, and water all spread out on beautiful new huge countertops. They have a huge foyer, and separate classrooms for all of the children. Livea didn't want to go because she said "I don't want to go to my baby class because the baby's always cry and it's LOUD" but when we got there she had her very own 2-year-old classroom to go into, and they got to paint. She pouted while she was taken to her class, but she had fun, and she told me later "And I didn't EVEN CRY!!"

We came home, talked to you, and then went to the Munson Farms Pumpkin Patch. Since the Brigade sponsored it, it was totally free. I didn't know, but they had lunch for us there. Including some delicious homemade vanilla ice cream. Then we waited for the horses to come pick us up. They said they'd drop us off at the corn maze, and we'd walk to the pumpkin patch. Christina said "are you sure you want to do this??" I really wanted pumpkins, so I told her absolutely! I was really surprised she didn't want to go. Little did I know. Little did I know....
that she meant the CORN MAZE. I didn't realize that they could take us to the pumpkin patch directly, and we could bypass the corn maze altogether. So here we are 8 kids in tow, 2 of them whining and crying that they're hot and tired, and don't want to walk anymore, trekking through a poorly plowed corn maze (which was mostly just a winding path that we followed for what seemed f o r e v e r), and it went on and on, and ON. Finally, Christina said "do you still think this was a good idea??" I told her this was horrible, and why couldn't they just drop us at the pumpkin patch??? She said THEY COULD HAVE. I had no idea. lol. It really wasn't fun. We all kept tripping on corn stumps in the ground, and while it wasn't so bad for me, the kids kept actually falling on their faces. Finally, finally, we got to the pumpkin patch, and it was scant at best, nothing like last year......those darn squash bugs. It was hard to find good pumpkins, but we got some. I can't put the pictures on here yet, but I will update it later when I can and stick them in here, so keep checking. We were all tired out. It must have been a good 3/4 mile walk. I had Livea on my shoulders for half of it. It just wasn't that fun. But the horses were cool. They got a new Percheron horse. He was in the front stable right near the drive, and he (and we were sure it was a HE!) is the second biggest registered horse in the United States. He is huge. He is 6.5 feet at his shoulders. Beautiful, absolutely. He's younger than their others, 7 years, and not as wide as the others, but they said he may bulk up and out like the others. We stood there and watched him for a very long time because he is just amazing. He kept coming closer to us, and closer, and I kept saying I think he wants to come see us. And sure enough after about 20 minutes he just walked all the way up to us and let us pet him. His head was fully above and overtop of mine. I had to step back 4 feet away from the fence just to reach his head to pet him. He was so friendly. Adam picked some grass and he ate it from his hand right away. So all the kids starting picking grass and he just kept eating from everyone, and he left everyone pet him. He was so sweet and friendly. He stayed for maybe 10 minutes and just let us all give him some affection. He was just amazing, so huge, what a creation. I have pictures of him too.

Then we headed over to the fire and made some s'mores. By now, since our maze-hike took forever and a day, it was after 2pm, and it was open to the public and very crowded. When it was just Brigade, they had s'mores at the fire, but now the front trailer thing was open and people were paying and getting s'mores there. So I had to go over there and get our s'mores, while Christina tried to keep kids from falling into the fire pit. ;o) We ate s'mores, and sat next to a young couple, that Christian said he was sure was Christina's sister, and told her she should ask. So we struck up a conversation, and lo and behold, her husband is a medic fresh from AIT and in 1st Brigade. Come to find out, they are both from Phoenix, grew up there, she went to Central, I forget where he said. Also, the husband grew up in Hawaii, and really wanted (of course) his first station to be Hawaii - and they got Kansas, poor kids. But they were very nice, and it was neat to talk to them. He said he is thinking of putting his officer packet in, but of course people are telling him no. I told him to tell them to start paying him better, and then maybe he'll think about not. Christina and I both encouraged him to do it.

So, finally it was time to go. I was tired, thirsty, ready to get out of there. It was too crowded at this point, and keeping track of kids wasn't as easy. I asked Christina if she wanted to come take a breather at our house before going home. So we all went back to our house, and vegged for a while. I ended making some delicious potato cheese soup and breadsticks and we had dinner together too, and made a day and night of it. They finally left around 8 o'clock, and I promptly got kids to brush teeth, get in jammies, and get into bed. Exhausted again yesterday. I had bad dreams last night, but I woke up feeling refreshed at least.

I missed you much yesterday. Doing the pumpkin patch again this year, but without you, just seems wrong somehow. The husband of the 1st Brigade couple we met asked us (C & I) how it was going with our husbands gone. And I realized that it's finally hit me that you're gone. It took a while, but I'm finally feeling it. Could be a slight bit of hormones too, I suppose. =) But mostly, I just think the time has taken it's toll, and I'm ready for you to be done and home. And it has only been 2 months!! 2 months yesterday, in fact. I'm getting homesick now, I think because of the weather, and the holidays coming....I just want to be around family. I don't think it'd be so bad if you were here though. The other day I woke up and just wanted to crawl out of bed, get a cuppa and do the crossword with everyone.

Yes, we miss you and love you!!

It's only Wednesday??

It's just Wednesday but it feels like the longest week in the history of time! I don't know why! I have been so tired this week, and busy. To top it off, Jenna had a headache all day yesterday, fell asleep in the car on the way home from Topeka (how often does that happen?) and when she woke up she had little to no voice and has been running a fever ever since. H1N1. Ha. I am obsessed aren't I?? =)


Jenna at her ortho appointment yesterday. She was being silly...posing more for me than being really mad about it. I cut her hair last weekend too, cute, huh..?

So, since Jenna was sick this morning (she has been on the couch almost all day), I had the dishwasher open this morning and was putting the dishes away, well, more like getting spoons out for breakfast, and plastic bowls for cereal... and around 10:00am when I finally got around to eating breakfast... I was standing there cooking eggs, and Livea showed up next to me and said "Sure! I will do the dishes for you Mommy! Sure!" I laughed, and turned around and she just started putting the dishes away. She put all of them away. The plates and bowls (glass!!), she asked "Now where does this go, Mommy??". It was so cute, and I told her she was the best 2 year old helper EVER. Her hair is kind of stringy looking because she took a shower with me, and I hadn't brushed it or anything yet.

I also had to take a picture of Livea's face drawing for you. She draws this face completely sideways - it is the strangest thing I have ever seen. Her arm was actually not at the bottom of this picture while she drew it, but on the pictures' left. She drew the entire picture that way, and does it every single time. I'll let her draw on the white board and the faces will all be sideways because that is how she draws them! It is so funny! She started drawing this all on her own, and she started drawing the ears and the legs on her own also. For a few weeks it was just the head, and eyes, and nose and mouth. No she draws circles all over it to indicate ears and legs. I am not sure why they need ears, but they aren't arms - they are ears, I asked.

I am making baby-burgers tonight for dinner, with spinach, pineapples (fresh!), and baked french fries - hopefully anyway - if I can get up and get it going, because it is after 5 already, and here I am settin'!! I wish you were here to eat baby-burgers with us - I'd probably even make you a big-daddy burger. ;o)
Love ya, miss ya.

Lazy-dazy Sunday

We didn't go to church today because Adam has a nasty cough. Luke had a cold-y sounding nose all last week, so I was not surprised to wake up to hear Adam coughing. I decided I just wasn't going to drag him there sick, and get other kids sick, not when the H1N1 is so "pandemic" (can you hear my sarcasm?) that the government is threatening to forcefully vaccinate our children for it, when it is really only barely worse than the regular flu. Not to get off on a tangent....!

So instead we stayed home, and lounged around. Lukas said "what is today Mommy?" I told him Sunday. He said "WE DIDN'T HAVE PANCAKES YESTERDAY!!" So I made pancakes and we didn't have enough chocolate chips, so I made peanut butter and jelly pancakes and they weren't as good, but they were quite tasty even still. The kids devoured them just like they were chocolate chip pancakes.

So after you called I decided to just rearrange furniture. That is always fun on a no-church Sunday, right?


Looks kinda strange, huh? There is just more room in here this way. It wouldn't work with you here at all since there are only 5 chairs at the table. But it's good for now.

I made chicken in a wine and cream sauce for dinner, with asparagus, onions, and mushrooms and noodles. You've had it. I have made it a few times. It was delish. The kids all ate it because they wanted strawberry shortcake afterwards. Adam threw the biggest fit, you can well imagine, because he didn't want to eat the asparagus, but I swear Josh, as soon as he resigns himself to it, he is just fine and he'll eat it. It just takes all of us listening to him whine and cry through 20 minutes of dinner before he gets to that point. Arg. So I let Jenna and Riley make the strawberries. They washed them, and cut them up, put sugar (stevia!) on them start to finish all on their own.
Dinner was so tasty. I stuffed myself (as you can well see by the amount of food on my plate, but the funny thing is I had more!) with delicious dinner and dessert. I almost drank a fly out of my cup tonight too. Very disgusting. I felt something and about swallowed thinking it nothing, and then I was like, uhhhhhhhh, and I spit it all over the counter and sure enough - FLY. Gag. I maybe could have thrown up then because the thought of you chomping on the fat fly in your v-8 popped into my head, and I just had to get rid of the fly before I really spit all over the counter. =)

I am going to get the kids in the house now, clean them up, and read another chapter in The Horse and His Boy, and then put them to bed. I am aiming for 7:55 so that I can listen to Pastor Mark tonight. I aimed 2x today at both service times, and missed both because of one kid-thing or another. It'll be nice to sit and listen without any interruptions, er, hopefully.

Oh, I almost forgot. Livea was telling Riley today that "Daddy is gone for a long time, and YAH, he is going to be GROUNDED when he gets home!" I have no idea where that came from! But it was funny. Silly little thing of her!

I love you, and miss you! I hope you're remembering to journal. I keep forgetting to ask you about that. I can't wait until R&R. I keep thinking that I can't wait until you're home, but R&R is sooner!!

Dinner without Daddy

Last night we were supposed to have spaghetti for dinner. Lukas was all excited about that, I'm sure you can imagine. So, we went up to the Arts & Crafts Center on post to drop the frames off for matting, and we had to go to the store for brown sugar, because we ran out during cookie-making. All of this took longer than I expected and it was 6:00pm when we got home. Without you coming home at 6 or 7 at night, we have been eating dinner by 5:30 at the latest. On Taekwondo nights, we eat at 4:00pm (and have a snack when we get home). So, I just did not feel like cooking spaghetti, and cleaning up a spaghetti kitchen! So guess what we ate for dinner? We had tortilla chips, with spinach and artichoke dip, and pizza rolls with ranch, and pretzel fish crackers, and mozzarella fish crackers, and cookies and milk for dinner. No one went to bed hungry last night!

Everyone woke up hungry though.
Last night in bed, Livea randomly said "there are bad guys, right Mommy?" I told her yes. She said, "yes, and we will run and run with our sticks." I said "why?" She said "when there are bad guys outside, we will run and run with our sticks." I said "ohhh." She said "some bad guys are bad, right Mommy?" "Yes Livea". She said "some good guys are bad, right Mommy?" I said, "well, yes, that's true." She said, "some bad guys are good, right Mommy?" I said "well, yes, I suppose so." She said "the bad guys will come in our house and we will get them with our sticks, right Mommy!!?" I told her that bad guys wouldn't get in our house because we are safe in our house. I asked her if she wanted to pray about bad guys and she said yes. So we prayed that the bad guys would be good guys, not bad guys.
Where did she come from??
She is so cute with her bangs cut. I am going to buy a new camera this week so I can upload pictures to my computer, so you can see us. I wasn't going to, but I think I resigned myself to it, because I have been wanting to post pictures on here for you to see, and I cannot because of my retard-o camera. She looks like Lukas with her short bangs - her cheeks look 5 times chubbier. It is so funny, and it makes me want to kiss them all day.

I have to go start school with the kids in 5 minutes, and I am not dressed, so I better go.
We love you, and we miss you!

eat it, it's good for you!

Last night I made a Dr. Sears recipe from The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood. I love this book, and I love the recipes in it. I read it a few years ago when we lived in Hawaii. So they share their family recipes at the end of the book, and there is one that is called Cheesy Pie. I made it first when we lived in Hawaii.

I love it. It is a bit like a quiche, as it has eggs in it, and I think maybe everyone would like it better without, but I love eggs too, so everything about this recipe calls to me. Well, I don't think I've made this dish in a little more than a year. So last night, having all of the ingredients on hand (wow!), I whipped the dish up real quick-like. Luke has Saturday dinner details, so he helped every step of the way, and 9 times out of 10 when he helps cook he will eat his dinner. Something about helping to make the food increases the likeability factor. I'm not sure why. So Livea ate every single bite of hers, and had second helpings. Everyone else took 3 bites and, incredibly enough, they were FULL. Hmmm. I said "Luke, do you like the dinner you made?", he said "YAH, I love it", but I see he only ate 3 bites, and then everyone cried when I told them they weren't having any other dinner, but then they decided they didn't care as long as they didn't have to eat anymore.

I have to admit. I was really mad about it. I just can't see what is so bad about it. Turkey is pretty bland, and the entire dish needs salt to lend it a more full flavor..... but....but....but.... it's not that bad people!!! Yes, I was mad. I was mad at our silly little kids for not eating their healthy dinner. I told the boys that they would have to eat it for breakfast, that is how mad I was. So this morning, Adam promptly reminded me, rice chex bowl of cereal in front of him, "Mommy, you said we had to eat our dinner for breakfast this morning," ha.ha. ha. ha. I told him I changed my mind, and that I was just mad that they didn't like it.

Hmph. I am thinking about making it for like 3 weeks straight. Little spoiled, pickies.

It's not that bad!! I like it!!!